Houston-area home prices have hit their lowest level since February as listings inundate the market, new data shows.
The September median single-family home price in the 10-county metropolitan area was $327,000, down 2.1% from a year earlier, the Houston Association of Realtors said this week in a report.
Active listings for all property types in September, excluding lots, hit 47,379, up 27% from September 2024.
Single-family sales reached 7,399, up 5.3% from September 2024. Homes priced from $250,000 to $499,999, a range that accounted for more than 55% of all September sales, posted a 1.3% decline in activity. Sales were up year over year in all other price ranges, the trade group said.
With listings on the rise, buyers are negotiating better deals, noted Jennifer Wauhob, a Houston-area agent and the 2025 chair-elect for Texas Realtors. The ratio of list price to sales price is about 95%, a trend down from 98% to 100% a few years ago, she said.
"I would say buyers are certainly in a good position right now," she told Homes.com.
Buyers need to feel connection
Buyers can afford to be picky, Wauhob and other agents say. In some cases, homes with new roofs or whole-house generators may not be enough to win over buyers, as they often prioritize personality over functionality, explained Kat Robinson, vice chair of the Houston Association of Realtors and a broker associate with Compass.
She's coaching sellers to forget about pricey upgrades and instead spend the money on paint, lighting and staging to make the home connect with buyers.
"If buyers don't feel like they can make it their own, they're going to move on," Robinson said in an interview.
Despite the shifting market, sellers do have leverage, agents say.
A survey this week from the Texas Realtors trade group showed that 39% of agent respondents had clients who competed against other offers. And 63% of respondents said their most recent clients made an offer on at least one other home, an indication that they didn't get their first choice.
Still, sellers whose homes are move-in ready and priced appropriately have the best chance at success, according to Wauhob.
"They just need to make sure their expectations match the reality of the market right now," she said.
The median price for condos and townhouses in September fell 4.4% from the prior year to $230,000, according to the Houston Realtor report. Buyers completed 414 sales in September, up 4% year over year.
Existing market conditions are likely to remain in place for the rest of 2025, with buyers having more room to negotiate than they did a few years ago when the supply of homes was smaller, according to Itziar Aguirre, senior director of market analytics for Homes.com.
"I expect prices to remain flat, especially in suburban master-planned communities where developers remain active," she said.